A House-Senate conference committee has agreed to cut $200 million from the Bush Administration's $1.7 billion fiscal 2004 budget request for the International Space Station (ISS), according to congressional sources.

The conference committee adjourned late Nov. 19 without completing an "omnibus" package that includes several FY '04 appropriations bills, including the one that would fund NASA. But congressional sources told The DAILY that the conferees have finished their work on the NASA portion of the legislation. The conference committee was trying late Nov. 20 to finish the overall measure.

The Senate, which proposed the $200 million cut for the ISS, insisted on keeping the reduction in the final legislation, partly on the grounds that restoring the funds would have caused painful reductions in other programs. Senators have also insisted that the ISS program could absorb the cut because the station's construction has been halted while the space shuttle has been grounded.

The Administration objected to the Senate proposal, saying it would deplete critical reserves and limit the program's ability to address the effects of the shuttle's grounding (DAILY, Nov. 17).

A congressional source said the conference committee rejected a proposal by House authorizers to put NASA's Orbital Space Plane (OSP) program on hold. Leaders of the House Science Committee have proposed delaying the space plane's development until the government comes up with a vision for space exploration (DAILY, Nov. 13). But other lawmakers have insisted that the program needs to go forward.

Separately, 23 senators have signed a letter urging President Bush to increase funding for NASA in the future. The letter, spearheaded by Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) and Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), was delivered to the White House Nov. 19. More than 100 House members signed a similar letter that went to Bush Oct. 31.

Boehlert's concerns

Rep. Sherwood Boehlert (R-N.Y.), chairman of the House Science Committee, spoke Nov. 20 to the Space Transportation Association in Washington, D.C. He said he is not calling for "a complete halt to the [OSP] program or even for reducing the fiscal 2004 request, but we don't want to start taking steps that seem irrevocable. It's wrong to expect Congress to sign on to soliciting or awarding a contract for OSP when no one can tell us how the OSP fits into the future of NASA, or remotely how much the project will cost."

Boehlert and Rep. Ralph Hall of Texas, the committee's ranking Democrat, sent NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe a letter last month requesting the delay. Boehlert said he met with O'Keefe recently but made no progress on the OSP.

NASA wants to issue a request for proposals for the aircraft as early as this month, said a Science Committee source, "and we would prefer that they don't.